Physical and Space Geodesy
News
More information on the News page.
PhD defense Tobias Wittwer on 9 Dec 2009, 12.30pm.
Bas Alberts has successfully defended his PhD thesis on 28 Sep 2009. Thesis download.
GRACE-derived Mass Transport model now available for download.
Xianglin Liu has successfully defended his PhD thesis on 3 Dec 2008 - Thesis download.
Jasper van Loon has successfully defended his PhD thesis on 24 Nov 2008 - Thesis download .
Prof R Klees appointed Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Geodesy July 2007.
Introduction
Physical Geodesy is the science of the study and interpretation of the influence of physical forces like gravitation, centrifugal forces, tidal forces, and tectonic forces on observable objects and phenomena such as the gravity fields of the Earth and other planets, the sea surface, Earth rotation, heights and height systems, Earth tides, and plate tectonics.
Space Geodesy is the science of the application of precise measurements from, to and between satellites and/or extraterrestrial objects to solve geodetic problems, among others the precise determination of coordinates of points on the Earth’s surface, the determination of the Earth’s gravity field, the realization of reference systems, and the monitoring of the Earth’s motion in space.
The Physical and Space Geodesy group (PSG) focuses on the determination of the gravity field of the Earth and celestial bodies, the integrated modeling of gravity and complementary space geodetic data to assess the physics and dynamics of the Earth and celestial bodies, and the exploitation of this information to solve problems in science and engineering.
The emphasis is on the physical, mathematical and statistical theory necessary to process, analyze and interpret the data acquired by state-of-the-art and future space-borne, airborne, terrestrial and/or marine observing systems. A key element is the development of optimal algorithms.
Final products comprise global and local models of the gravity field of the Earth, other planets, and asteroids, models of the mass transport above or below the Earth's surface, and innovative numerical methods and data processing algorithms.
Gravity field and integrated modeling is an emerging market with diverse and challenging applications ranging from ocean dynamics and climate change, prediction of droughts and floods, navigation, sea level variations, and height referencing to studies of the origin and evolution of the solar system.
PSG cooperates with partners at the international and national level. The research contributes to national and international research programs and is sponsored at the national and international level. The results of the research are used by both the scientific and the professional community.
The group is headed by Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Roland Klees. It resides within the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering (LR) of the Delft University of Technology (DUT).
